We’ve also got Russell Hammond’s weekly update of the Release Dates & Artwork section available to go along with Doogan’s Queue, which means there’s no excuse for missing out on the week’s new releases. And as always, a portion of anything you order from Amazon after clicking through our links goes to help support our work here at The Bits and we really appreciate it.

Now then… we’ve got some very interesting news to report today. Are any of you guys fans of the classic 1970s Battlestar Galactica TV series? If so, you’ll be surprised – as we were – to learn that it’s just been released on Blu-ray Disc. But as a German/Region-B only exclusive! No kidding, it came out back in early December. It’s a 10-disc set, with 9 Blu-rays containing the episodes and a 10th disc (PAL format) of bonus content including much all-new material. Couple of surprises here: This is NOT a Universal release per-se. It was apparently licensed by Koch Media GmbH. The set is Region B, with both English and German audio and subtitles. Here’s another surprise: The set includes not just all 24 episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica in 1080p, but also all 10 episodes of the spinoff series Galactica 1980 in 1080p too (all pillarboxed - black bars on the sides - to preserve the original 4x3 TV aspect ratio)! Reports from readers who have the set in hand say the quality is very good if not perfect – relatively on par with Universal’s recent theatrical movie release, if perhaps not quite as cleaned of dust and dirt. Subtitles are removable on the episodes, but not on the extras. Here’s the final surprise: I’ve confirmed today with Universal here in the U.S. that the studio has “no immediate plans” to release this set in the States. And indeed, the studio currently has only the DVD box set due to be re-issued in the States on 2/18 – that would have been the time to release the BD set if they’d had one planned. How do you like them apples? Bottom line: If you love this classic series, the German/Region-B BD release is your only option. That is a serious bummer… though do keep in mind that there are many good options for all-region Blu-ray players. An now Universal has just given you one more reason to get one if you haven’t already. Anyway, here’s the link and the cover art for the German release. Special thanks to Bits reader Rick C. for the heads-up!

But in the last year or so, it just seems to have gotten way out of hand. The practice used to be limited to one or two small featurettes given to one retailer on the occasional title. Now it’s huge chunks of content (30 minutes, 60 minutes – in some cases even 90 minutes!) being given to multiple retailers per title on most major new release titles.

There is ONE complaint we hear more than any other from Bits readers, and we seriously hear it multiple times a day, almost every single day: Blu-ray fans are sick to death of all these retail content exclusives.

The latest culprit is Warner Home Video’s Man of Steel Blu-ray (note that our review of the Blu-ray has been updated to reflect this information). I awoke this morning to find an e-mail inbox filled with an onslaught of messages from Bits readers angry about the release. Here’s the problem: Lots of people are buying the premium Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D SKU on Amazon (or whatever their preferred retailer may be) expecting to get a premium content experience for their money. But instead they’re discovering that if you buy the same title at Walmart, it’s got two exclusive featurettes – The Iconic Characters of Man of Steel (20 min) and The Sonic Landscape of Man of Steel (13 min). Now... if you’re a fan of Man of Steel and you’ve just purchased the highest-priced version of the title hoping to dig into tons of great special edition material, it’s frustrating as hell to find out that – unless you buy a second copy at Walmart – you don’t even get all of the special feature content you were hoping for. It gets worse: Target has an exclusive Blu-ray version too that includes five more featurettes – under the heading X-Ray Vision (31 min total) – only available there.

So now, if you want everything, you’re faced with the choice of potentially having to buy TWO versions of the same title, while possibly returning your original Amazon copy, which had none of the exclusive content. Not only does that suck the joy out of the experience of pre-ordering, anticipating and enjoying your new special edition Blu-ray copy of Man of Steel, but more and more of our readers tell us that they’re simply choosing not to buy the Blu-ray at all. Many of them are opting to just rent the film digitally instead, and wait for the inevitable Super Deluxe Special Edition Blu-ray they all know is coming a year or two down the line anyway, that will hopefully have all the content.

In other words, more and more often, Hollywood is giving its best, most avid and enthusiastic Blu-ray consumers good reasons NOT to buy Blu-ray product.

This is happening on almost every major title now: Star Trek Into Darkness, Iron Man 3, Pacific Rim, Man of Steel, World War Z, Pain & Gain, Monsters University and on and on. I’d be willing to bet good money that someone at Warner tried very hard to split up the extras on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Extended Edition, but thank goodness it didn’t happen (and I’d further be willing to bet money that it was director Peter Jackson who wisely stopped it from happening).

We understand that the studios want to make their retail partners feel special. And we understand that retailers want to offer their customers special product perks and incentives for being loyal. And we can tell you that our readers actually don’t mind some retail exclusives. Give them exclusive Steelbook packaging, an exclusive poster, booklet, prop replica, action figure, badge or statuette? No problem! That’s awesome. But when you take actual disc-based special edition content and scatter it to the winds – and what’s more make it difficult for Blu-ray consumers to even find out about it until they walk into the store on street date – that really, really pisses them off.

Ultimately, those of you making the home video decisions at the Hollywood studios need to remember something that’s very important and seems to have been forgotten of late: Walmart, Best Buy, Target, iTunes – they’re great retail partners but they’re not the end user or ultimate consumer of your product. And if you keep alienating your best consumers, sooner or later it’s going to bite you in the ass.

Look... I’m sure some of these big new release BD titles sell well regardless. But regularly pissing off your very best customers seems like a terrible way to do business.

Now then… I’ve updated my Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray review with a fully complete listing of all the exclusive content available via Target, Best Buy/Cinema Now and iTunes. So do check it out. One hopes the studio will eventually revisit the title on BD as a truly complete special edition, perhaps when all the retail exclusive content deals expire. In the meantime, now you can at least see what’s available. And at the very least, anyone who buys the BD and redeems the digital copy code through iTunes can get access to the enhanced commentary, so that’s something. [Read on here…]

In other news today, Warner Home Video and Adult Swim have set Robot Chicken: Season 6 for Blu-ray and DVD release on 10/8. Bonus content will include outtakes, multiple behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted animatics and much more.

Lionsgate has set Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/8 (SRP $24.99 and $19.98). Extras will include a pair of audio commentaries (one with Whedon alone and another with Whedon and the cast), 2 featurettes and a music video.

Lionsgate has also set Shaquille O’Neal Presents All Star Comedy Jam – Live from Atlanta for DVD only release on 10/1.

Sony has set Grown Ups 2 for Blu-ray Combo and DVD release on 11/5.

Funimation has set announced their November anime and TV release slate, which will include: Hetalia: World Series – The Complete Series (DVD – 11/5), the Akira: 25th Anniversary Edition (BD Combo and DVD – 11/12 – “This release features all three English dubs that have occurred since 1989, giving fans the option to choose the one that they have the deepest connection with.”), Maken-Ki: The Complete Series (BD Combo Limited Edition and BD Combo – 11/12), Wolf Children (BD and DVD – 11/12), Good Luck Girl!: The Complete Series (BD Combo Limited Edition and BD Combo – 11/19), Syfy’s Lost Girl: Season Three (BD and DVD – 11/19) and One Piece: Strong World (BD Combo and DVD – 11/19).

Millennium Entertainment has set Plush for DVD only release on 10/15.

Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment and Sonar Entertainment have set Exploding Sun for release on Blu-ray and DVD on 10/15.

One Village Entertainment has set Frat Brothers for DVD only release on 10/8.

And Image Entertainment has set the horror film Shiver for DVD only release on 10/8.

You may also have noticed that we’ve modified the Latest Review sidebar (over on the right hand side of the home page) to include our NINE latest reviews (not just six) and also to show the vintage reviews we’re upgrading into the new database as well as the new release title reviews. We figured that for some of you, those older reviews from the original Bits website will be new – you’ll not have seen them before. So we wanted to make sure to highlight them as they go into the new database to make them easier for you to find and read. We hope you enjoy them!

Now then... I’ve got a bit of an update of you all on Paramount’s Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray. Specifically, I’ve now seen the Target-exclusive bonus features... [Read on here...]

The first thing to know is this: The Target-exclusive BD version of this film has the Blu-ray 3D on one disc like the wide release BD3D SKU, but it also has the Blu-ray 2D version all on its own disc. The only feature on the disc with the 2D film is the short promo for The Mission Continues. That’s it. Which in theory could mean the movie has more data space – more room for the A/V data to breathe – on the disc.

Another thing that’s quickly become apparent to me after watching the Target-exclusive features is... the folks at Bad Robot clearly crafted a pretty nice overall batch of bonus content for this film. If all this content, plus the regular-release content, the Best Buy-exclusive features and the iTunes commentary had all been contained in one multi-disc Blu-ray special edition, it would have been pretty great. Here’s what’s on the Target disc that the rest of us aren’t getting:

To make matters worse, after watching the above, it’s also apparent to me that Paramount Home Entertainment’s marketing people essentially cherry-picked the best of the content for their retail exclusives. Seriously, this stuff is pretty great. Rebuilding the Enterprise is a fun look at the construction of the Enterprise sets, with up-close looks at more detail than we ever get to see on screen in the film itself. Vengeance Is Coming is a terrific piece on how those sets were “redressed” for use as the Vengeance interiors – and you get to see those up close too. Mr. Spock and Mr. Spock is a wonderful piece on Leonard Nimoy’s return. It’s great nice content. Too bad most fans won’t get to see it.

What a shame that the studio effectively ruined the fan experience of all this! If Paramount does revisit this title – which they absolutely should – it’s not going to be enough just to gather all this material back into one SKU. They’re going to need to create some additional exclusive content just for fans. How about deleted scenes and an elaborate production design gallery for not only Star Trek Into Darkness but also Star Trek (2009) – show fans the props, the sets, the design sketches for all the various starships up close in HD. The studio will also need to make damn sure that anyone who buys any version of the current Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray gets a hefty discount on a proper special edition. Anyway... seeing the Target content just makes a frustrating situation even more so. I’m hoping to get my hands on the Canadian Best Buy bonus disc too, so I expect it will only get worse.

Anyway...

In other news today, Anchor Bay Films has set Ambushed! for release on Blu-ray Combo and DVD on 11/12.

Anchor Bay Entertainment and RADiUS-TWC have set the film Lovelace for Blu-ray and DVD release on 11/5. The film is based on the life of infamous Deep Throat adult star Linda Lovelace. It stars Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and Hank Azaria.

20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Animation have set Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness – The Scorpion Sting and Monsters vs. Aliens: Cloning Around for DVD only release on 10/15.

And Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment has set Home for Christmas: A Golden Christmas 3, Come Dance with Me, Hitched for the Holidays and Merry In-Laws all for DVD only release on 10/15 as well.

Here’s a look at the BD cover art for Lovelace, DreamWorks Animation’s Turbo (street date TBA but available for pre-order on Amazon) and Disney’s The Lone Ranger (also TBA but available for pre-order)...